The NBA salary cap for the 2009-'10 season dropped to $57.7 million, and the luxury tax threshold to $69.2 million, the league told its teams Tuesday night. The mid-level exception is set at $5.854 million.

Here's Pistons cap situation:

That would give Joe Dumars around $4.2 million dollars left over to use on a third free agent or to use in a trade taking back more in salary than sending out. With the luxury tax threshold dropping to $69.2 million, there will be teams looking to shed salaries in order to get below that number. This is something that Joe Dumars has stated he would like to take advantage of.

It's a possibility, especially with Stern saying that cap will go even lower next year. They are estimating $50-53 mil.

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stars will get their max deals, granted, smaller fishes either accept 1-3year MLE deals ( hoping to get their payday later when economy goes up) or yeah, in Europe, but you have to take into consideration that euroleague teams are affected by economy too... Many teams in europe are in debt now...